FOR 30 years, immigration officials have scaled back or altogether halted raids on illegal aliens while the U.S. census was being conducted. But the Bush administration announced last month that times are changing.

Undocumented immigrants try not to be found. They are therefore supremely unmotivated to report themselves — and personal information about themselves — to census officials. To combat such mistrust, during the past few censuses the U.S. Census Bureau has launched awareness campaigns, with the help of Catholic churches and advocacy groups, to convince immigrants that the census was both confidential and important.

During the past three censuses, immigration officials also agreed to suspend some sweeps for illegal aliens for the sake of getting a more accurate head count. In 2000, the decision took the form of an informal agreement not to carry out large-scale raids that would get a lot of media coverage. Making high-profile arrests of illegal immigrants during a census, after all, can increase suspicion that surveys are being handed over to law enforcement.

But next time around, Immigration and Customs Enforcement will “not even consider scaling back (its) efforts,” according to spokeswoman Ernestine Fobbs.

Why is the census important, and why do we care whether illegal immigrants are counted? There are both legal and practical reasons. The Constitution requires the government to count all people — legal or otherwise — residing in the United States once a decade.

The information obtained from the census is also critical in determining political representation and the allocation of funds. Census officials don’t care about an individual’s personal information; they care about population trends and how that information can be harnessed to craft better public policies. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s knee-jerk announcement of its intention to “aggressively” enforce immigration laws during the census is especially shortsighted because of how crucial an accurate census is for evaluating what ICE does. Census data provides the only means of estimating how many undocumented immigrants there are.

The Census Bureau announced last month that it won’t interfere with ICE’s duties. But scholars and career demographers are predicting distortions in this coming census as a result of ICE’s plans, especially given an anti-immigrant atmosphere already poised to deter illegal immigrants from participating. Before that happens, we hope the next presidential administration will step in and show more sense on census rules.

Maybe it takes one of the world's most elitist institutions -- a monarchy, for goodness' sake -- to provide a view of Christianity rooted not in conservative cultural warfare (or unrelenting support for Donald Trump) but in an egalitarian love.